Bruno, Fred, McT

Bruno is fine but McTom and Fred, though they show heart, give 0 in the form of offensive play.

Still ,to this day , I'm amazed that they are players at all top clubs who are unable to pass the ball forwards.
 
The problem isn’t them but the movement around them. Shaw is always 4 seconds too late for the right now, Wan Bissaka never shows up so our wide play is non existent. Also, we have no players making runs on the few crosses that we magically still manage to produce.
95% of United goals are either scored on penalties or one off individual moments of brilliance from the edge of the box.
 
Not the best game from Fred and Bruno, but still they did a decent job against Chelsea midfield.

Right now midfield is far from our biggest concern. We need to focus on wide areas.
 
I guess everyone thinks this is adequate, but we get so much more creative with Pogba on the field.
Fred lost the ball several amounts of times today in dangerous areas. Misplaced passes, passes to players in poor positions as well.

This midfield offers next to nothing going forward and leaves all the pressure on Bruno, and if he's not up for it, we tend to suffer immensely.

I'd be tempted to test out Van De Beek alongside McTominay, cause we had a hell of a lot of draws last season, and I feel with this midfield the same is likely to occur again.
 
We don’t need Fred and Mct in most games today was one of them, Mct should have been taken off much earlier today.
 
Roboc7 said:
We don’t need Fred and Mct in most games today was one of them, Mct should have been taken off much earlier today.
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Agree. McTom was pretty pointless in the 2nd half. Should've brought on Beek.
 
It's the combo that gives the most energy and looks most solid when Ole is looking to keep things tight.

I don't think Ole knows his best combo in midfield. VDB seems well down the pecking order, but has looked good when he's played.
 
One thing you can be sure of is that we will be solid in defense. Problem is we need creativity too and Bruno isn't enough. How about we play this?

Pogba Bruno
Fred Mct
​
 
jamesjimmybyrondean said:
One thing you can be sure of is that we will be solid in defense. Problem is we need creativity too and Bruno isn't enough. How about we play this?

Pogba Bruno
Fred Mct
​
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You're putting alot on emphasis on our fullbacks though for attack. Telles would work but Shaw and AWB ? hell no.
 
The midfield was not good today. Especially second half.

Also important to note when we have played it every time we have had to make changes to try get the win.
 
We have a bit of dilemma in that we need Mctominay and Fred's legs, energy and tenacity in order to look defensively solid. But it's always going to hinder our attacking play when both start. When one of them doesn't start you worry we're going to fall to pieces and expose our back 4.

I don't want Pogba playing in front of our defence again unless it's a piss easy game, I want him higher up the pitch if he's playing.

It might be worth trying VDB-Fred or VDB-Mctominay at the base of midfield because we've seen everything else.
 
FrankDrebin said:
You're putting alot on emphasis on our fullbacks though for attack. Telles would work but Shaw and AWB ? hell no.
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Whatever formation we play there's always emphasis on the full back to attack. We played 4-2-3-1 and Awb went forward alot providing width today and that's how it's always been.
 
Judas said:
Fred and McTominay starting today was overkill, against a team like Chelsea who were likely to sit back it wasn't needed.
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I disagree! The only time I feel like we can control a game is when they both play! Our problem today was that Bruno, James and Mata weren’t creating much. If we’d started with Cavani and Greenwood I think we’d have won!
 
Fred and McT are too much. Fred is enough. McT offers nothing except defensive part and it is not the way forward if you are Man Utd (unless we play diamond)
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Fred and McT are too much. Fred is enough. McT offers nothing except defensive part and it is not the way forward if you are Man Utd (unless we play diamond)
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Do you trust Lindelof and Maguire with just one shield in front of them? Especially if it means Pogba going back to deeper?
 
Bobski said:
Do you trust Lindelof and Maguire with just one shield in front of them? Especially if it means Pogba going back to deeper?
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Tbf, i trust those two enough. But i trust Fred as dmc too. Why we should play with 2 holding midfielders? And why we should play in 433 formation?
There are so many options to rotate.
 
I thought Fred was very good bar that silly turn in his own half. Mctomminay gave the ball away too much. Don't think we need both in every game.
 
If our defenders were any good, we wouldn't need both Fred and McT.

Alas... here are with a back 6. At least we got the clean sheet we've needed for morale.
 
As I keep saying, I want to see Fred-Matic play more. It worked well the few times we used it last season (beating Chelsea and City most notably). Matic coming in gives us better passing and control when we have the ball than we get with McTominay, while still being significantly more solid and defensive than either of them next to Pogba.
 
I still don't see it with the Fred-McTominay combination, it's a short-term solution and the easy way out to bail out the defense.
 
We've found our base for now. It's about adding the right quality around it to attack well . Playing 4 of James, Mata, Shaw and AWB isn't it.
 
No coincidence that we've looked a lot more solid defensively since the introduction of McTominay and Fred.

I was one of the people who were calling for us to get cover for Bruno in the CAM position, but in hindsight (and i'm sure Ole might be thinking the same), we should have probably bought a defensive midfielder in the mould of Fred/McTominay. That way, we could have played Pogba further forward, which is a position he has looked a lot more comfortable in this season.

That said, we have VDB and as Ole said, he will get plenty of games. There's so many combinations we can use. Just about finding that right balance.

Found it interesting that Ole went with Bruno on the right today. Its somewhere he's played before, so can't say I was too surprised. Going forward, that's another option, which then gives us the opportunity to go with VDB or Pogba in the 10 role, as we saw today. Either way, we have options, which is what we're going to need.
 
I don't see how playing Kevin de Bruyne, feeding James and Mata, changes much in this game against Chelsea.

Midfield is far from our biggest problems.
 
RB just couldn't handle them all. When McTominay entered the pitch they seemed very surprised and beaten by the intensity. Seemed like they've spent all energy on pressing us in the first half too.
 
Another game where we are exposed in defense when Mct & Fred aren't playing.

Matic once again provide no protection.
 
FrankDrebin said:
Bruno is fine but McTom and Fred, though they show heart, give 0 in the form of offensive play.

Still ,to this day , I'm amazed that they are players at all top clubs who are unable to pass the ball forwards.
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Yes, and also our CBs passing the ball sideways to each other. Too slow building play from the back.
 
They will be exposed when we have to keep possession as none of them are good at that. They are very reliable against strong opponents though
 
The amount of times I've said this since last season can't be counted really. Our best midfield combo. Each one doesn't need 7 touches to play the ball. McTom and Fred compliment each other really well.
 
This combo has a lot of advantages but when Bruno is marked out and opposition wingers press our CBs we are in trouble. MCT is a midtable team player in terms of creativity, Fred‘s passing is inconsistent. That is why Ole tried Pogba in a deeper role last season. Didn’t work out. Matic is a half solution. Need to sell Pogs and buy a good deep playmaker excellent at defending.
 
That’s the future. All three outstanding today. Full of energy and hardness against their thugs.

Pogba no more than an impact sub now for me.
 
This is our best midfield. Bruno and Fred are the most important players in our team right now. McTominay does a job but i would like to see somebody a little more capable at taking the ball forward and supporting Bruno. A mix of McT and Pogba would be great.

What's very clear is that it's Pogba OR Bruno, and neither will accept being on the bench. Pogba will go.
 
Probably our best option but our best team still has either Pogba or Van De Beek in that Mata position, IMO. Or Greenwood if we need to break a weaker side down.
 
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